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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: wind · wound · chest · degree · clip · mug · straw · stand

  1. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. I can't ________________ this cold.
  7. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. Where did you ________________ them?
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  24. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. chest — of your body
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. clip — to cut
  6. stand — to bear
  7. mug — a face
  8. wound — an injury
  9. stand — for spectators
  10. clip — for paper
  11. chest — of your body
  12. degree — an amount
  13. clip — a video
  14. chest — a box
  15. degree — temperature
  16. degree — from a university
  17. mug — to rob
  18. wind — moving air
  19. stand — on your feet
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. mug — a cup
  24. wound — an injury

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com